Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Networking through the internet is a great way for information to be distributed globally. One good example how this is done is the article below which I found on the Africa Files and Africa Files pulled it from the internet magazine Grain

It's important for the stakeholders in the global community to understand the economic and political forces that shape our lives and spreading information like that found in this article that I came across. Multinational corporations are seeking to gain control over access to much of the world's resources. Oil, gas, metals and the other typical commodities have been fought over for centuries in the transnational economic arena; but now game is afoot to put water and grain under corporate lock and key. The following article articulates this problem clearly, and I have reprinted part of its text here and provided a link to the original.

The end of farm-saved seed?

Industry's wish list for the next revision of UPOV

GRAIN

"The big players in the world seed industry are grumbling about loopholes in the plant variety protection system, which was the alternative to patenting that they set up in the 1960s. The Europeans want to get rid of farmers' limited entitlement to save seed. The Americans want to restrict the exemption by which breeders have the free use of each other's commercial varieties for research purposes. In both cases, the point is to reduce competition and boost profits. In the short term, the victims will be farmers, who will probably end up paying the seed giants an additional US$7 billion each year. But in the long run, we will all lose from the growing corporate stranglehold over our food systems. This briefing traces the recent discussions within the seed industry and explores what will happen if a plant variety right becomes virtually indistinguishable from a patent"

Introduction

"No more farm-saved seed and no more free access to protected varieties for breeding. In other words, remove the two main differences between plant variety protection and industrial patents. That's the beginning of the seed industry's wish list for a new revision of the UPOV convention. [1] {The Footnotes may be found at the original Article found through the link below}

"When plant variety protection (PVP) was first standardised by the UPOV convention in the 1960s, it was a mostly copyright-like form of intellectual property. The variety owner had a monopoly on the commercial propagation and marketing of the variety, but little control over other uses. Farmers were free to multiply seed for their own use for as long as they wished. Other breeders could freely use protected varieties to develop their own material.

"This changed dramatically with the 1991 revision of UPOV. Based on successful lobbying from the global seed industry, the revision turned PVP into something very close to a patent. Farm-saved seed was allowed only as an optional exception, restrictions were put on further breeding, and monopoly rights were extended all the way to harvest products. This is the version of UPOV which is now being rapidly rolled out across developing countries as a result of the WTO TRIPS [2] {The Footnotes may be found at the original Article found through the link below} agreement.

"The industry, however, is still not content. Over the past few years, it has started gearing up its lobby machine for a final attack on the remaining "loopholes" in the PVP system. If it succeeds, it will certainly spell the end of farm-saved seed, probably the end of free access to PVP-protected material for plant breeding, and a general tightening of the ropes with longer terms, stricter enforcement and wider scope of monopoly rights.

"This GRAIN briefing traces the recent internal discussions of the seed industry and tries to visualise what will happen if a plant variety right becomes a patent. Will UPOV become superfluous and slowly disappear? Not necessarily. The seed industry is promiscuous in its use of intellectual property rights (IPR). It likes to have many options. Judging from developments in the USA, the future lies not in opting for one form of IPR over another, but in combining two, three or more layers of legal monopoly on top of each other. …"

This article is well worth reading, even if your particular interests are not focused upon agriculture. This type of imperialistic behavior exhibited by global players seeking to gain hegemony over the world's resources must be watched closely and resisted when it threatens to erode the quality of life of the worlds peoples.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Mukoma Ngugi in his article: "African Democracies for Sale" published online on Z-Net warns that some of "the most important threats to democracy in Africa are the international NGOs that are funded by the government of the United States. "

Ngugi writes that these NGOs are "US foreign policy institutions that masquerade as philanthropic organizations of good-will all the while furthering American foreign policy. " He also believes that these organizations are of particular danger to Africa as they are currently operating in over 40 African nations.

Mukoma Ngugi decries this situation as being absurd and by comparison postulates how the reverse would be completely unacceptable to the United States. "To understand the absurdity of what Africans have accepted as a norm, imagine African countries financing a third party in the United States. And in addition they also train student leaders, trade unionists, journalists and the rest of American civil society how to oppose or overthrow the US Government. Americans wouldn't stand for it."

One example of certain international NGOs working against the interest of Africans is the fact that USAID required Zambia to accept Genetically Modified (GM) foodstuffs in order for that nation to receive foreign aid disaster relief in 2002. This required acceptance of GM foods have been shown by Oxfam and other reputable organizations to be harmful not only to local small farmers in Africa but that they could possibly lead to the destruction of local food economies and the creation of a cycle of dependency that could cause more acute starvation in the future. " It was an absurd case of stopping starvation today by creating conditions for more starvation tomorrow."

He finds the roots to this problem in the fact that incumbent African governments have access to all of the state resources such as capital, media outlets (state newspapers, television and radio) and money from foreign and domestic business seeking to gain favors. To offset this advantage opposition organizations are forced to take foreign funds in order to establish and maintain their programs. " But foreign money perpetuates the goals of the donor."

The crux of Ngugi's article is that alternatives to this situation must be found. He posits that there has to be a more fair election process, possibly monitored by the African Union, the African Peer Review Mechanism and the international community to ensure that all candidates, including opposition candidates, have equal access to the media - and through them - the public. Mukoma Ngugi suggests that there should also be instituted campaign finance laws that would make it illegal for any candidate or political party to accept foreign funding and possibly disbursing tax generated revenues to viable candidates as determined by a reasonable process of measurement.

Saturday, February 17, 2007

The material below was written by Hari Srinivas for the NGO Cafe and was taken by the Bazaar taken from the web pages of THE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER whose web address is listed below. I have added emphasis to certain words, which I hope the original author does not mind.

The NGO Cafe sits in the middle - between funding organizations on hand, and NGOs seeking funds on the other. While it has not itself disbursed funds, The NGO Cafe as learnt a number of lessons on the way. Here are some working strategies for successful proposal writing, written in no particular order:

Building credibility goes a long way in getting that grant. Use your board members and advisors to 'advertise' your proposal (and set up an advisory board if you don't have one already!).

Funding organizations work in grant cycles, disbursing grants one to three times a year. So, if you fail for the current grant, you can always apply for the next round.

It is important that the requested budget is within the limits of the funding organization's limits. Check their annual reports or similar documents to see the average size of funding made available.

Make sure to write a proposal that is within the limits of your organization's capacities and competencies. And within the limits of the budget requested.

Make sure you have clearly outlined exactly what is intended - do not use grand language without the substantial details of the exact impact that is intended, or benefits for the target groups. Ask friends and advisors to check the proposal.

Make sure you have fully studied and understood the priorities of the funding organization, and the reasons they are providing funds.

Many times, key wordings and well articulated proposals help convince the funders of its viability and impact. Again, link it strongly to the priorities of the funding organization, but don't quote it verbatim!

Most funding organization have clear guidelines, instructions and guides on their funding procedures. Many times they are targeted at a particular group, for a particular purpose or a region.

Since many organizations apply for funding make sure your proposal and application form is correct in all respects and follows the procedures properly.

Ultimately, no funding organization want to see a dependency on external funds for the success of a project. Clearly outline how self-sufficiency will be built using a long-term strategy, which goes beyond the time frames of the proposal being made.

[em]The material below was written by Hari Srinivas for the NGO Cafe and was taken by the Bazaar taken from the web pages of THE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH CENTER whose web address is listed below. I have added emphasis to certain words, which I hope the original author does not mind.[/em]

The NGO Cafe sits in the middle - between funding organizations on hand, and NGOs seeking funds on the other. While it has not itself disbursed funds, The NGO Cafe as learnt a number of lessons on the way. Here are some working strategies for successful proposal writing, written in no particular order:

Building credibility goes a long way in getting that grant. Use your board members and advisors to 'advertise' your proposal (and set up an advisory board if you don't have one already!).

Funding organizations work in grant cycles, disbursing grants one to three times a year. So, if you fail for the current grant, you can always apply for the next round.

It is important that the requested budget is within the limits of the funding organization's limits. Check their annual reports or similar documents to see the average size of funding made available.

Make sure to write a proposal that is within the limits of your organization's capacities and competencies. And within the limits of the budget requested.

Make sure you have clearly outlined exactly what is intended - do not use grand language without the substantial details of the exact impact that is intended, or benefits for the target groups. Ask friends and advisors to check the proposal.

Make sure you have fully studied and understood the priorities of the funding organization, and the reasons they are providing funds.

Many times, key wordings and well articulated proposals help convince the funders of its viability and impact. Again, link it strongly to the priorities of the funding organization, but don't quote it verbatim!

Most funding organization have clear guidelines, instructions and guides on their funding procedures. Many times they are targeted at a particular group, for a particular purpose or a region.

Since many organizations apply for funding make sure your proposal and application form is correct in all respects and follows the procedures properly.

Ultimately, no funding organization want to see a dependency on external funds for the success of a project. Clearly outline how self-sufficiency will be built using a long-term strategy, which goes beyond the time frames of the proposal being made.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

The Microlibrary is a project of The Center for Open and Sustainable Learning - COSL

The Microlibrary is an effort to develop an affordable print-on-demand service for public domain and open access educational materials, including books (e.g., from Project Gutenberg), courses (e.g., from OpenCourseWare), learning modules (e.g., from Connexions), and other materials, so that these can be turned into paperback books very inexpensively. The library is currently comprised of a few thousand dollars of commodity hardware that can travel from place to place and some custom software written by COSL engineers. The goal is to leverage existing open educational resources and put them (literally) in the hands of those who need them and - for whatever reason - want them in print.

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COSL says that you can go to their web site in order to learn how it works, download any of 20,000 free books ready to print or see where they have been lately.

In the Spring Semester of 2007 over 150 kids (and some of their parents) will experience the Microlibrary and learn about the history of printing, the history of books, and how books are made today. They'll get hands-on experience with the printing, binding, and trimming processes involved in making books, and all 150 children will get a free paperback book like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pride and Prejudice, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Hamlet.

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The book creation process begins with converting one of the 20,000 free ebooks from Project Gutenberg into a specially prepared PDF file that is properly rotated, paginated, and prepared for duplex printing.

The second step is actually printing the PDF on a duplex-capable printer. The duplex printer prints on both sides of the sheets of paper, so that the pages in the book have text on both sides, just like you would expect.

The third step is trimming the printed pages and preparing them to go into the binding machine. Sometimes it's a little tricky to get all the edges cut perfectly straight!

The final step is placing the prepared pages in the binder, together with either a clear cover or more traditional paperback cover and a glue-covered spine strip. The binding machine heats up the glue on the spine strip, which binds the pages together and the cover to the pages.

COSL has a link to Instructables for instructions on how to make the books without the expensive equipment listed above; but at the time of this article, the Instructables web site was down and this could not be verified.-------------------------------------------

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

One of the difficulties for NGOs in Africa and other developing nations is the inability to communicate effectively with a target audience. The Media Develoment Loan Fund (MDLF), through its initiative Campware is addressing this problem.

The text below is taken from the Campware web site.

The Media Develoment Loan Fund launched the Campware initiative in March 2001 as a platform for open source solutions for independent news media organizations in emerging democracies. The initative is coordinated by MDLF's new-media arm, the Center for Advanced Media--Prague (CAMP).

Campware grew out organically from the need of MDLF's CAMP to provide cost-effective, open solutions for a number of new-media projects it was pursuing.

While searching for such solutions (from 1999 onwards), CAMP realized that most available software solutions for print and radio catered to commercial players in the West and were thus beyond the financial reach of independent media in emerging democracies. At the same time, open source software tended to cater to the geek/webmaster community and as such was not tremendously suitable for journalists. Mulitlinguality or Unicode-support were just an occasional afterthought.

CAMP's main idea was that software developed and distributed under the Campware initiative should be user-centric, i.e. built explicitly for the end user. Our first project, Campsite, first released in March 2001, embodied such ideals. For example, we called things the way they are called: our article was an "article," not an "asset"; our images were called images not "objects"; Campsite's user interface was automatically customized to each user based on his rights, so there were almost no "You don't have the right to do this, please contact your administrator" messages. And all of this the end user could read in her very own language.

Campware continues to adhere to the logic of short learning curves and non-mystifying interfaces in all its projects, from the Cream customer relationship management software for newspapers, to the emerging Campcaster radio automation solution.

MDLF's active partners in Campware are Redaktion und Alltag (Berlin) and the Department of Digital Design of the Parsons School of Design (New York). Campware is open to cooperation with likeminded projects.

Some of Campware's products are listed below.

CampsiteCampsite is a free and open multilingual web publishing tool for news sites. It provides a robust, stable, and journalist-friendly solution for online magazines and newspapers.

CampcasterCampcaster is a free and open source automation system for radio stations. It provides live studio broadcast capabilities as well as remote automation in one integrated system.

CreamCream is a free and open-source customer relationship management (CRM) system designed for media organizations.

Cream is designed to meet the unique demands publishers have, including features that allow subscription management, support for multiple products (print subscriptions, advertising, online subscriptions, books, etc.), customer communications (both incoming and outgoing), and easy-to-use reporting and analytical functions. Cream also enables publishers to track special offers, such as seasonal discounts and trade shows.

Dream<A distribution-management system for print publications.

Dream helps publishers by providing ways of monitoring distribution, ensuring that publications get out to readers in the best possible way, and optimizing the number of returned copies in an edition.